Kenya charges Muslim activist

2010-01-19 12:16

Nairobi - Kenya charged a prominent Muslim activist with incitement to violence on Tuesday over riots last week that rocked the centre of the capital Nairobi.

Al-Amin Kimathi, chairman of Kenya's Muslim Human Rights Forum, is accused in connection with Friday's protest against attempts to deport Jamaican cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, which degenerated into hours of running street battles.

Kimathi was arrested on Monday at Nairobi's High Court, where seven other suspects were charged over the turmoil.

Civil unrest in Kenya is particularly worrying following post-election violence in 2008 that killed some 1 300 people. Given the regional threat from Somali extremists seen as a proxy for al-Qaeda, it is even more concerning for a nation that has in the past been hit by two al-Qaeda-linked attacks.

Later on Monday, Kenya's foreign affairs minister said the government had secured a flight to Jamaica for Faisal, and that it expected him to leave in two days.

Friday's demonstration against the deportation of Faisal was organised by Kenyan Muslims, but many of the marchers who fought with the security forces in the city centre for more than eight hours were Somalis.

At Friday's protest, some demonstrators carried black flags identified with Somalia's hardline Islamist rebel group al Shabaab and there were reports of mobs attacking Somalis.

Another 150 suspects including some members of the Somali parliament were charged on Monday with being in the country illegally, a day after security forces raided a mainly Somali suburb of Kenya's capital and arrested scores of people.

The Kenyan government has been quick to blame Friday's violence that killed at least one person on extremist youths exposed to "foreign elements", and has assured Kenyan Muslims their religious freedom and civil liberties will be respected.

- Reuters